New Forza Motorsport Poorer Than FM7 on Launch and Most Likely Delayed
Yesterday's Developer_Direct show didn't go the way fans of the Forza Motorsport series wanted. There was very little gameplay of FM8, instead of the expected release date we got a suggestion of a delay, and on top of that it turned out that the game will be quite poor in content at launch.
Fans of Forza Motorsport were waiting for yesterday's show the latest installment for more than half a year, so they were expecting a lot from it - but, judging from the statements on its official forum, they are not satisfied with what they saw. Instead of biting into details about the game's modes (with career at the forefront) and gameplay in the broadest sense, Turn 10 studio once again once again treated us with a tale about the elaborate audiovisuals and big words forged with the help of the marketing department. In addition, the several-minute video (below) of actual gameplay included maybe a dozen seconds of it in total.
Add to that the fact that this time not a word was stammered about a spring release, rounding up the debut date to 2023. There was also no mention of preorders, and on top of that the game still doesn't have a tab on Steam. From all of this, the conclusion is that for the release of a new Forza Motorsport game may be delayed until the second half of the year - most likely until early autumn (this seems to be a favorite term of game developers working on the brand).
On the other hand, hope that Turn 10 Studios will make it before the very end of the year after all (and who knows, maybe even before the end of the summer) is given by the few details revealed by the developers. We learned that new Forza Motorsport "at launch" will offer more than 500 cars and 20 routes. Leaving aside the modesty of these numbers - the very fact that the developers already have a closed (roughly) list of content, gives the idea that the game's development is more or less at the finishing line.
And why "modesty"? Well, Forza Motorsport 7 debuted with about 700 cars and 32 tracks (a Gran Turismo 7 had even more tracks, at 34). While in the case of the latter the reduction is understandable, as the developers are preparing each location from scratch (and promising as much as ten times more ambient detail than before), with the car park they don't have as good an excuse.
It looks like we are in for a repeat of Forza Horizon 5. In it, there was an equally drastic decrease in the number of cars compared to the previous installment just so that the developers could bring them back month after month as "exclusive" rewards for various challenges as part of the live-service model of development. Here, the same will most likely apply to the routes - and rebuilding of their collection may turn out to be a process planned over many years, since the project has been stripped of the number in the title and described as a reboot of the series. Of course, one must also reckon with the possibility that such content will be additionally paid for, i.e. released as DLC (as well as brand new cars, not "recycled").
Today, a Forza Monthly broadcast will take place, where we have a chance to learn a little (but only a little) more about the game. In particular, I'm hoping for an elaboration on the topic of the "all-new" career mode, "focused on building cars", which was literally mentioned in a single sentence. I will prepare an update to this news if the director of Forza Motorsport, Chris Esaki, reveals anything interesting.
